Blessed Pino Puglisi | The merciful smile of a martyr
In the wake of Martyred Missionaries Day on March 24, we also present today the life of one of them
Today, Blessed Pino Puglisi, killed in Palermo at the hands of the Mafia
Don Pino Puglisi, since May 25, 2013 blessed, was returning home on the evening of Sept. 15, 1993, on his birthday.
He had been born in Palermo 56 years earlier, in Brancaccio, in the same township where he had continued to live to give hope and a future to his boys.
That night, his last gift was his smile, along with his forgiveness. Just as he was about to die.
Reading the testimony of his murderer, Salvatore Grigoli, who later became a collaborator with the justice system, is a blow to the heart.
“Don Pino was about to open the front door of the house. He had his purse in his hands. It was a matter of a few seconds: I had time to notice that my companion approached, put his hand in his hand to take the purse and said softly: father, this is a robbery.
He turned, looked at him, smiled and said: I expected that!
He had not noticed me, that I was behind him, and I then shot him in the back of the head.
You know, I have no experience with saints. What I can say is that there was a kind of light in that smile.
A smile that had given me an immediate impulse.
I cannot explain it: I had already killed several of them, however, I had never felt anything like that. I always remember that smile, although I have a hard time even keeping the faces, the faces of my relatives, imprinted on me. That evening I began to think about it, something had stirred in me.”
A martyr of the Mafia, Don Pino Puglisi taught us by example what mercy means. With deeds, not just words.
Aware that he was an uncomfortable voice for the Mafia because he spoke to young people and removed manpower from organized crime, Don Pino “crowned his victory with a smile,” Pope Francis said. He was the light of Forgiveness.